Rumors regarding sexuality have plagued Queen Latifah for some time now. Though it doesn’t seem to be affecting her professional life any – audiences still love her whether she’s acting, rapping, or singing – her private life seems to be under some strain. She recently opened up in a cover story for Essence magazine.

She says: “My personal life is personal and its really not for everyone else. With what I do for a living, I have to share a lot of myself with a lot of people, but I’m not going to share everything. They want to make up stories and make me gay all the time and it’s like, ‘Keep running with it.’ I’ve definitely been annoyed by it, but I learned a long time ago that it was pointless to say anything. Everybody else can do the reading; I’ll do the living.”